For a Tuesday night meal, this was a pretty kick ass cockquerel (kidding, we don’t really discriminate between a Tuesday night and Saturday night meal, it all depends what we have on hand and how much time we got).
The meat stayed juicy and packed full of flavor from the stuffing, spices and frequent basting. The stuffing was pretty much ground veal, ground pork (with fat), toasted walnut bread soaked in heavy cream, dried figs, finely chopped almonds, finely chopped onions, sariette (savory?), nutmeg and one whole egg. It was rather nice although I would have used walnuts instead of almonds if I had them (or chestnuts for that matter).
And I didn’t feel like wine tonight so this got emptied:
Weeknight staple that’s so simple and flavorful. Thai basil chicken with blistered and marinated green beans. Takes under 30 minutes to make and that includes running the chicken thighs through the food processor rather than buying pre ground chicken.
It’s ok, you can fix that. Just give yourself a couple twirls and when that doesn’t work wait three more days and then when that doesn’t work wait several years before revisiting. Just don’t be alarmed to find you’re still green.
Thank you, Mike. That’s very kind. We worked hard on it, and it gives a lot of pleasure, after having nearly killed us getting it built!
@Mikko_Tuomi The wok burner is a standalone custom unit by a company called Robert Yick out of San Francisco. He has done a lot of the woks for restaurants of note, and did a great job for us. It’s quite the little flamethrower, putting out about 250K BTUs. I’m scared of it, though, so mostly it’s Jonathan’s toy. He uses it mostly in the Canotonese style, with two spatulas, rather than tossing using a handle, but we have both. It’s quite amazing the difference between what you can do in something like that, and a wok-shaped pan placed over even a highend normal stove burner.
Mikko if you have a patio you could try Kenji Lopez-Alt’s 160K BTUh top recommendation at The Best Outdoor Wok Burners for Restaurant-Style Stir-Fries, somewhat humorously but aptly named “PowerFlamer 160”. Gets my vote as best redneck kitchen accessory. It works really well and is cheap, if flimsy; I always worry a little about safety when I’m using it, not to mention the inconvenience of dragging out all my little bowls of ingredients. And not being able to use it when it’s snowing.
I guess a ducken roulade since I didn’t want to use turkey.
1 duck confit quarter (sous vide)
1/2 of the duck fat and juices from the sous vide bag
2 chicken breasts
skin from 4 chicken breasts
I broke up the duck meat and mixed in a bowl with the duck fat and chopped duck skin (added some cracked pepper and lemon zest), rolled between the 2 breasts (lined with sage leaves) over the chicken skin really tightly with plastic wrap, vac sealed & sous vide 149º for 1.5hr, let cool, then in a hot oven until crispy. The duck fat seems to have dispersed through the breasts and the sage also infused it’s flavor. This turned out really good and I’m surprised the chicken skin patchwork didn’t break apart.
This looks great and like an actual good use case, in my mind, for sous vide. I don’t like the effect on most tight proteins, and oject when there is a conventional method that is already perfect. But for a dish like this, it is for sure the right way, doing something that would be very difficult and maybe not entirely effective with any other method, unless you are comfortable with doing torchons in steamer. Nicely done.
Thanks! Yeah I no longer use sous vide for most meats (steak, fish etc), although it’s so convenient for chicken breasts which are my primary source of protein (along with fish), so it’s still a kitchen staple. I’ll make a bunch at the beginning of the week, fridge them in the same bag they’re cooked in and dice into salads etc during the week.
Yes, i used to do that, but couldn’t stand the rubbery texture after a while. Now I cook up a mess of boneless skinless chicken thighs at the beginning of the week and grab one or two when I need a protein hit. They taste better than breasts and I honestly believe in having some fat with protein.
Tartare of arctic char. Mixed in some shallot as well as diced cucumber and samphire for texture. To give it some heat used chili seeds that I’ve reserved from chilis I used to make… chili. Gave a really cool smoky component to the dish. Garnished with more samphire.
A couple of steaks. On the left, skirt of British Wagyu, on the right, 60 day dry-aged sirloin. Cognac peppercorn sauce, pommes purée, sautéed asparagus.
